Content:
On two leaves of white wove paper, both 15 x 9.5 cm, in black ink, with extensive
revisions in the same ink, in light brown ink, and in pencil. Pinholes mostly at
top and in center of both pages. Whitman numbered the pages 2 and 3 in pencil.
This was originally the second section of the sequence "Live Oak, with Moss" (one of the deleted lines reads
"I write/ these pieces, and name/ them after it [the Louisiana live-oak];"), with
ornamental Roman numeral. It became section 20 of "Calamus" in 1860; the lines on the first manuscript
page correspond to verses 1-7, and those on the second ("It is not needed to
remind/ me...") to verses 8-13. The poem was retitled "I saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing" in 1867.
Content:
Five lines of the poem "I
Saw in Louisiana a Live Oak Growing." This poem is part of
the "Calamus"
cluster, which Whitman began assembling in the summer of 1859. The
reverse features a note by the poet to himself, describing the poems as
"A Cluster of Poems, Sonnets expressing the thoughts, pictures,
aspirations &c Fit to be perused during the days of the approach of
Death."
